Developing Business Critical Capabilities in Early Talent

Today I spoke to a candidate (let’s call her Subo) to discuss feedback on the strengths that enabled her to be successful in an assessment centre for an apprenticeship scheme. Subo was excited to receive feedback and brainstormed all the ways she imagined growing and developing within her first few months – she almost had to hold herself back once reality hit that she hadn’t actually started the apprenticeship yet!

Set against the backdrop of politicians pledging to create opportunities for young people to get into work through apprenticeships, this paints a promising picture about how eager young talent are to apply their skills in the workplace.

On the flip side, last week, the CIPD published an article emphasising the need for learning and development in organisations to deliver outcomes that are more acutely aligned to business strategy. Developing apprentices, graduates and ‘emerging leaders’ to develop capabilities that will deliver future business requirements is a critical challenge; yet it’s this very population of talent that are a force for culture change.

For early talent like Subo, whilst making an impact from ‘day one’ matters, being equipped to develop a rich career is equally important. Doing both through developing the capabilities that the business needs is absolutely essential.

Often, this means building capabilities for future roles that negotiate unchartered territory. With many new roles, e.g., in digital and technology, evolving at pace, the key is to develop both core capabilities and an understanding of what a diverse range of career pathways would look like.

At Capp, we recognise the need to enable apprentices, graduates and emerging leaders to assess their own current and future capabilities so that they can strategise about their next leap. We do this by providing emerging talent and managers with assessment data about their current capability, future capacity and how these could map to potential career pathways.

The good news for young people is that organisations such as Lloyds Banking Group and Standard Chartered Bank are already using such assessments to develop ‘next level’ capabilities amongst apprentices and graduates. This means that young people like Subo can take responsibility for directing their own growth and careers – and managers have the data to support them in the right ways. We also support organisations to develop talent through action-focused interventions, workshop based learning, and high impact talent centres.

For more information about Capp’s approach to talent management, please contact the development solutions team on +44 (0) 2476 323363.